Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American
video game developer and
publisher founded on February 8, 1991 under the name
Silicon & Synapse by three graduates of
UCLA,
Michael Morhaime,
Allen Adham and
Frank Pearce and is currently a subsidiary of American company
Activision Blizzard, which itself is owned by French conglomerate
Vivendi SA. Based in
Irvine, California, the company originally concentrated primarily on the creation of game
ports for other studios before beginning development of their own software in 1993 with the development of games like
Rock n' Roll Racing and
The Lost Vikings. In 1994 the company became
Blizzard Entertainment Inc before being acquired by distributor
Davidson & Associates and later by
Vivendi. Shortly thereafter, Blizzard shipped their breakthrough hit
Warcraft: Orcs & Humans. Blizzard went on to create several successful video games, including the
Warcraft,
StarCraft and
Diablo series, and the
MMORPG World of Warcraft.